Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Tuesday March 22, 2011 @08:34AM
from the where-have-i-heard-this-before dept.

Roblimo writes "Yes, we know tablets like the iPad are the wave of the future and that PCs and laptops are dead. But some of us see tablets as laptops with their keyboards missing and a few hundred bucks tacked onto the price."

But my table is good for holding food at dinners. Can your laptop do that?

Actually as I look down at the keyboard, my laptop has a surprising amount of food on it. I see crumbs from my bagle yesterday morning. I see a little shmear of dried egg on the shift key. And I think that may be some hardened mozzarella cheese on the corner of the trackpad.

About once a year I just take my Model M, hold it upside-down, and give it a vigorous shaking. Of course, I have to vacuum afterwards, but still... canned air is a waste.

Yeah, the keys still have more dried food stuck to them than the floor at Burger King, but that just adds more tactile response for my fingers, not to mention added security from people not wanting to touch it. It's a feature.

One place I worked at my wife would send me a bag of cookies every day in my lunch. She'd put the cookies on the icepack in my cooler, and they would be cold and nasty by the time coffee break came around. Then I figured out that the heat from the laptop exhaust made a nice cookie warmer. First thing I'd do every morning is prop the bag open so the warm air blows in. By the time coffee break rolled around, the shop would smell like freshly baked cookies.

Anyway, the cost of the device is hardly relevant. Aside from portability, the real differences are consuming versus creating. So far, tablets are basically giant consumption devices. Listen to music, read books, watch videos, visit other people's websites. Not so much made for creating (unless the limit of creating, your case, is writing blog updates).

So far, tablets are basically giant consumption devices. Listen to music, read books, watch videos, visit other people's websites. Not so much made for creating (unless the limit of creating, your case, is writing blog updates).

Well, I'm not sure whether it's literally true that Damon Albarn recorded and mixed an entire Gorillaz album on an iPad -- but let's admit that it's vaguely plausible.

It seems to me that the multitouch tablet is a brilliant form factor for many kinds of music creation app -- be it a standalone app or a control surface for another computer/instrument.

Tablets and laptop are both computers. The tablet is limited by lack of a keyboard. The iPad is limited in a variety of other ways (Flash, battery, ports, battery, application installs, multitasking, etc).

Even you admit tablets are used for creating and consuming. Creating blog updates. Emails. Pictures. But the tablet is crippled. And overpriced.

The iPad does give you a nice user experience, if all you basically want to do is consume. However if you want to do anything more than play with a toy, you may need something different.

Getting information isn't necessarily playing with a toy. Lots of commuters like to read and use it like a kindle or a nook, but a kindle or nook that also email. Not having a keyboard isn't necessarily a disadvantage if you are going to be using it on a train or subway, especially if you might need to be standing while using it. Etc... Look if you are fully stationary a desktop is better than a laptop. If you need to be portable a laptop is better. If you aren't going to be able to be in an office like environment a tablet is often better.

Why do you get to decide what's a "justifiable use"? I like to use my iPad as a browser on the couch, and to check email. I find that if I'm sitting in front of the TV, I'd rather not sit with my laptop all the time. I also find my iPhone a little too small for viewing when I have the option of a larger screen.
As for an e-reader, I prefer the iPad because I'm not locked into a single store for books; I can buy from the Kindle, Nook, Borders, and Apple stores, among others.
I do have a "wider variety of devices" but the tablet fits certain use cases that I have. Don't think that "justifiable uses" fit everyone.

The iPad does give you a nice user experience, if all you basically want to do is consume. However if you want to do anything more than play with a toy, you may need something different.

I'm afraid you don't get what Steve Jobs does: Most people today and certainly the vast majority in the iPad target audience, already have a computer. You can try selling them a new one, or you can sell them a totally new device that satisfies needs that their existing machine doesn't.

Take me, for example. I'll be buying an iPad 2 when it comes out this week in my country, even though I already have two computers in this house, and my girlfriend has another two, and two out of those four are a notebook and a netbook. But none of them allow me to lie down on the couch and ready a PDF book comfortably. Or take with me when I go on a trip in much the same way I'd take a book.

It's not a pressing issue - if I had to build my household from scratch, a computer would come first, long before a tablet, but neither is a tablet simply a notebook without keyboard. Whoever writes that disqualifies himself from the discussion as not having understood a thing about why the iPad sells as quickly as the factories can make 'em.

Not really. A video camera can only be used to create a movie and a television to display it. A laptop can be used for both creating and consuming content while a tablet only for consuming it. The difference here is that a video camera is not in the least appropriate to consume while a laptop remains very appropriate to consume content. I agree with the poster. Just make the darn tablets 100$ and I'll get one. That's how much I would spend for a redundant device in the house. Otherwise, I can use a laptop

Actually a tablet can be used for creating and consuming. 5 minutes on the Apple site shows that very clearly. As to whether "there's nothing that you do with an iPad that you couldn't do on a laptop", while that is (mostly) true, how is that relevant? I could easily say "there's nothing that you do with a laptop that you couldn't do on a desktop" and it would have just as much relevance (none!) to the discussion.

The iPad was introduced as a revolutionary device that covers the space between a phone and a laptop. In reality is a device that's not appropriate for either purpose, with non or little actual space to cover in between (at least for the moment). If you really think about it, there's nothing that you do with an iPad that you couldn't do on a laptop. By extension I think this applies to any kind of tablet.

You're right, in terms of function there's really not much you can do with a tablet you can't do with a laptop, and a tabet isn't really a phone or a laptop...

But where a tablet is nice, is doing some of the same functions with a different form factor. Like someone else pointed out above somewhere, I can take my tablet on the subway and read things on it, where I'd find it extremely difficult to do the same with a laptop, especially if I'm stuck standing, holding on with one hand.

It's nice, too, that it's a well sealed package, so if I take it to a restaurant, I can use it without worrying about getting food or drink in the keyboard.

You must be kidding. Any quick look through google will show huge amounts of content creation. It may not beyond preferred method of content creation or not for the particular type creation that you do, but it most certainly is for creation. Unless, of course, you mean creating gold on WoW. Tablets don't yet have the punch for games like that yet.

2. a premium markup on anything with a mobile radio inside it. This because the hardware companies are not selling direct to customers, but to telcos that can then sell the products at a contract related subsidy.

Well, your laptop may be able to surf the web, but I can eat off my table, plus I'm pretty sure my table could crush your laptop!

But really, tablets *ARE* like laptops, but in a form factor that makes them really pruned down. Laptops are chunks of plastic that fit together - sort of. Tablets are sleek and minimalist and have touch screens. Two different markets. I wouldn't want to write a paper on a tablet, and conversely, there are points where having a tablet is just easier than pulling out a laptop (and finding some place to type correctly on it). Each has their own merits, and like any tool, you have to use it properly for it to be effective.

Hardly. Unless you use a laptop as a tablet (i.e. run only one program at a time and always maximize every app you run), in which case you're screwed to begin with, and will never catch up in the tech race.

A tablet is an oversized PDA with a focus on bells and whistles instead of useful functions. Do not want.

I'm not going to use my tablet to code on, or to write a technical document or create visio diagrams, that's true.

But, for getting into a more comfortable chair, or sitting in the back-yard or the hammock at my parents place, or at the hotel bar or in the airport... I actually find the form factor to be usable in a lot of circumstances where I wouldn't want a laptop. For me a laptop is mostly something I put on a desk and use it like a desktop.

I can sit in a comfortable chair in the hotel lobby, cross my legs or slouch in my chair and still check my email in several different accounts, check the news, and maybe play sudoku or Pocket Frogs or something. It's used more for consuming content than doing anything like my professional work. But it's become something I get quite a lot of use out of, and on business trips I use it far more often than my laptop (which I still drag around with me).

Who thinks a tablet could replace a laptop? Tech journalists who don't know shit about tech, and various Starbucks-dwelling types (who also don't know shit about tech), that's who. Tablets are doomed just like PDAs without cell modems were doomed. The future is convertible laptops. Mark my words.

Wow, if someone ever tried that I'm sure it would change the entire industry!

Hint: The reason why tablets are popular is not because of their features. It's because you can carry the damn things around with you without your arm falling off. Slapping a tablet screen on a notebook does not fix this problem.

Modern notebooks/netbooks weigh very little. If you put a fancier hinge and a touchscreen layer on a Macbook Air's screen, how much heavier would that make it? Don't forget, almost all laptops use li-ion batteries instead of the much lighter and more space-efficient li-pos.

The big question is whether it will be a PC-like laptop running a desktop OS, or an Atrix-4G like device, basically a convertible laptop body for a phone, running a less functional OS. It could go either way. Assuming this walled garden fad wears off soon (every walled garden in the history of general-purpose computing has failed so far), I'd say it'll be an Atrix-like device, otherwise it will be a PC-like device. Either way it won't weigh significantly more than a tablet and will be far more useful.

Hint: The reason why tablets are popular is not because of their features. It's because you can carry the damn things around with you without your arm falling off.

This...
is why American society is doomed. I've seen Chinese and Thai students lugging about ancient 5+ KG laptops because they were the only ones they can get and we're talking about 40-45 KG when soaking wet Asian girls.

Hold on, I'll be in my bunk

Now where was I, oh yes, not being able to carry around a 1.2 KG laptop. Are you kidding me? 1.2 KG for an EeePC or equivalent netbook, the heaviest one Asus has produced is 1460 grams (1.46 KG).

If you think that a tablet is something that just gets "lugged" from place to place, you're unclear on the concept.

A tablet is to a notebook what a paperback novel is to a hardcover book. One stays in your hand as you travel around, the other is ported from one reading spot to another. Sure, you can easily carry around a large hardcover, but try reading it with one arm outstretched and I guarantee you'll be in pain before long.

And for perspective, the iPad weighs as much as some softcover bibles. The average 13" notebook weighs as much as a hardcover copy of War and Peace.

First, a tablet is designed to be compact and solid. I've yet to see a netbook that can toss around like you can an ipad and expect it to hold together. The screen of a netbook tends to be contained in a flimsy plastic shell while the ipad is in a metal alloy shell, securely put together (in fact, it's extremely hard to take apart if you're trying to). It takes a lot of abuse and if you have a simple case around it, it won't even get scratched up.

For some non-zero use cases, the Apple iPad is the best available device. So long as this remains non-zero, some people will be buying it for those uses.

But the far more interesting question is, "Why does it matter if they just want it, rather than need it?". If there were limited supply, and owning one meant taking it away from someone who needed it, I could see your point.

And as far as your comment goes about paying anything for Apple products, so what? Apple attracts not just people who are attracted to the design, but also those who need a reliable piece of tech to fulfill a need. That's why it's news whenever there's a problem, it's unusual. It's not a news article when another commodity PC craps out, or when Windows bluescreens or reboots, but in the Apple world it's news. Until Apple products become as virus-prone, until the user experience drops to the non-Apple level, until the hardware becomes as troublesome as the rest of the market, Apple will remain on top. Some of us will pay for that.

For a lot of people it probably could replace a laptop. Just because the Slashdot crowd doesn't fall into that group doesn't mean that the device is useless. It's unfortunate that 95% of tech journalists don't cater to 5% of the market, but such is life.

You're like the people in the early 2000s who told me only an uber-geek could have a use for something like a Treo 180. According to them, PDA-phones with touchscreens and keyboards would only be popular with geeks because they're so bulky and complicated, and simple dumb phones with no Internet connectivity or fancy input devices would remain the most popular.*

*If you argue that most people use dumb phones and therefore they were correct, I will argue that most people don't have cars and therefore they are

And the thing is, that "$200 laptop" was certainly not a $200 laptop when it started its life. He bought it used on Craigslist.

If you read TFA, his reasons for liking it have to do with the *expandability* of the laptop versus the tablet: ports, dvd drive, more internal storage, replaceable battery. And if somebody else hadn't purchased it first, then resold it when they bought something new, he'd be spending a LOT more on a Thinkpad than he would on an iPad or a Xoom.

Looking at the specs on a Thinkpad X30, it's a 5-6 year old computer, and in terms of performance, I'd expect an iPad 2 or a Xoom to keep up with it just fine, performance-wise.

Sure, they're obviously what everybody wants. Which is why everyone still has a laptop. Even the rubes that bought a tablet still have a laptop.

Come on. They tried to sell us this four years ago, when they didn't have touchscreens and were called netbooks. They sold like hotcakes for about six months, and no one's bought one since. And I have a netbook. They're handy like 1% of the time, but mostly I just use my, you know, computer.

It could be used in "laptop", "tablet", and "easel" form-factors (the third being propped up like an artist's easel, which is outstanding for small presentations, video viewing, and some other uses). Lovely design, but it never took off, alas.

I've used a wide variety of devices in a wide variety of form factors, and I have to say: lapt

Asus have a couple of models which IMO sound far more useful devices than pure tablets. The Eee Slider is a tablet with a slide out keyboard which tilts the screen for typing. The Eee Pad Transformer is a tablet that you can stuff into a netbook style housing with keyboard / mouse.

IMO both devices are far, far more suitable than tablets for any kind of text input, e.g. lectures, writing emails, essays, slashdot comments. Of course the price might be prohibitive when they launch but we'll see.

That's the biggest issue with tablets at the moment - they cost too damned much money. It really is a ripoff. A tablet should be the same price as a netbook, but manufacturers are still in greed mode. They see Apple commanding stupid premiums for their device and they "compete" by pricing their devices similarly. There is absolutely no reason a decent tablet shouldn't cost $300 or less. There are already a few examples (e.g. Advent Vega is a Tegra 2 10" tablet for £250) but the brand names are still too expensive. Hopefully when the market is flooded with Android 3.0 devices the prices will become a bit more reasonable and competitive.

um Apple is kicking the crap out of every manufacture on price and you call them greedy? When apple first annouced the price of the ipad every other CEO shit bricks as they were expecting a $1000 price tag from apple and they would be in a good position to undercut on price.

No one can touch Apple's price points because the factories don't yet exist. In 5 years they will be lower, but it takes time to retool factories.

maybe you should learn something about economics, before mouthing off what things "should cost" you have no clue.

You are wrong on so many levels . I GAVE an iPad to my mother-in-law, set it up on her mac and then i packed up the mac and stored it. A year later she still hasnt asked for her mac back. For a lot of people an iPad is a complete desktop/laptop replacement. Did i mention I havent had a single service call to her house in that time?

Everywhere I go these days, my friends slam laptops. They tell me my PC of choice is a dying breed and sing the praises of their new, "post-PC" Apple iPad.

Is it me or does it sound like the writer's friends are just trend-happy followers? I'm around a lot of tech people and I don't know of anyone who crow about how much tablets are going to completely displace PCs or laptops or desktops. I think for most people, the tablet is a nice toy with interesting specific applications, but it's not a replacement for anything. Same thing with all the people who said netbooks were going to displace laptops a few years ago, and the people who said laptops will destroy desktops a few years before that. Didn't happen then, won't happen now.

Of course they are. This isn't even a contest. Different devices for different uses. I use my laptop for writing, programming and the such. I can't use a tablet for that. Conversely, I once was in a conference and saw someone taking notes on an iPad. I couldn't realisticaly pull out my laptop and take notes standing there.
Not that I'd buy an iPad anyway, but a cheaper tablet might have its uses: they just can't replace anything seriously.

Tablets (the separate species from TabletPCs) are meant to be take-anywhere devices. That iPod or Android phone in your pocket? That's a tablet.

It isn't meant to be the device that you rely on to do your heavy work. It is a portal device, to get you to important data immediately, wherever you are.

Spock doesn't use a tricorder tablet because it has a million features and CPU to spare. He uses it because it is handy and can connect to the Millenium Falcon when it needs to perform more CPU-intensive calculations.

If you think your laptop is better, then that's great for you. But the fact of the matter is that you have simply been left behind technologically. You are a relic.

Yep, my $400 G-Tablet pretty much runs circles around my $400 eeePC 901 (granted, the latter is a few years old now). It can play flash videos in fullscreen without stuttering. It connects to wifi faster. I can plug in external storage.

Spock doesn't use a tricorder tablet because it has a million features and CPU to spare. He uses it because it is handy and can connect to the Millenium Falcon when it needs to perform more CPU-intensive calculations.

Wow. I think you managed to cause a stroke in all the Sci-Fi nerds on/. at once.

Good sense that most people are missing. I really wanted a new tablet, I was looking at the Xoom, and while waiting for it to be released in WiFi only I looked around and noticed that I could get a laptop that had enough power to play full PC games, movies, and do everything anywhere on the web (flash, silverlight, whatever is out there is probably works on a PC) and all for the same price. The only advantage I see for tablets right now is size/weight, longer battery life and quick web browsing. They cos

You should look into the Nook Color. Very decently priced mid-range tablet that I was able to install android honeycomb quite easily. I love using it around the house or while on the couch. It plays angry birds and other games just fine. It's a lot less awkward to use than my laptop or netbook while lying around in front of the tv, in my opinion.

The only downside is that the honeycomb install can be a bit glitchy sometimes, but that's not a dealbreaker for me. It's only a preview release and should improve

You can't have sex on a laptop... my $500 table wins!!!
You can't play beer pong on a laptop.... again, table wins!!!
You can't put 10 laptops on your laptop... Another win for the table!!!
You can't have sex, while playing beer pong and using your laptop on a laptop... Tables rule!!!

Laptops boot faster than tablets? Laptops wake up from sleep mode faster than tablets? Laptops have longer battery life than tablets? Laptops have faster virus scanning etc than tablets? I wanna see this $200 laptop.

One positive impact of the tablet market is the potential for better screen options for netbooks and low-end devices. Netbooks almost universally have cheap, low-quality screens, but tablet do not, largely because they require support for the high viewing angles that IPS screens can offer. With any luck the millions of IPS-or-higher quality screens on these tablets will drive down prices for IPS panels, and we'll see options for decent netbook screens filtering into the low- to midrange netbook market.

Article makes several good points, but a lot of the problems it mentions are leveled at the iPad specifically and not tablets in general. Non-apple tablets could easily not have these problems.

Personally, I'd like something where you can just plug the tablet into a docking station that has a keyboard and mouse setup, maybe even a larger monitor, and just pull it out when you need to go portable. Although that doesn't take care of the problem where tablets will be forever less powerful than desktops.

A. A Laptop's CD and DVD Player/Burner: If you're into permanently saving photos, music, or movies

Wireless connectivity allows me to store my music, photos and such, on a machine which I won't lose. The chance that I will need all my music, those movies, or that photo, are to be considered, but many of us know what we reference daily. I would rather have a home full of things I need now than a home full of clutter I think I might need and never access. Tell me this, how many have look at last used dates on many items on your notebook? It might surprise you.

B. A Laptop's Keyboard: Most iPad users readily admit it's difficult to type anything that is data intensive on the touch keyboard that appears on the screen.

OK, but given time you learn to adapt. I find just as many people complain "you will never be happy with a notebooks keyboard" as I see with tablets. Well I can get a nice clamshell case with a bluetooth keyboard built it. Tablets are not meant to replace home computers for development and large work, the Apps just are not there. However they are great for taking what you need in a small footprint.

C) The Storage Available on a Laptop:If you want to download and store tons of decent-quality movies,

Which in point A I stated, go check when you last viewed/listened to the majority of it. Then scroll back to see what you used in the last year. You will be surprised. I have over 20g in music and guess how much I listen too. I have the 32g iPad of which I haven't used half. Why? Because its like packing a car. I am taking what I know I will use and then tossing in small things here and there. I guess for some being lazy and taking it all is a great method but you never rid yourself of the clutter if you do. Fact is, we keep to much crap on our computers because its easier than cleaning it up

D) A Laptop's Ports: No USB port on an iPad? Sure there are pricey adapters, but what if you want to plug in a mouse, digital camera, and/or printer?

My printer is wireless. I have an adapter for HDMI, SD cards, and USB cables, which btw I haven't used every day. I don't need a mouse with a touch screen and wireless eliminates most ports anyway

E)Apple iPad 2Apple iPad 2The iPad Doesn't Have Multitasking: So I can't listen to sports talk radio online, check to see if little Charlie has bitten anyone else's finger, and type my blog, all at the same time? This versatility is why we love mobile computers. This fact alone will always keep me using a laptop.

False. I load a VPN connection and close the app to load something else and yet my VPN is still running. How is that? Is that not multitasking? I have loaded a work app and bounced between it and my webbrowser which by the way was showing the weather an it updated in the background. I guess by multitasking you meanm you cannot have a bunch of windows open all at once of which your are using ONE AND ONLY ONE AT THIS EXACT MOMENT. Many Apps that you invoke keep background services running, that is multitasking. Don't confuse that with having many windows open.

F) The IPad Is Confined by the Limits of iTunes: Jared Newman, a PCWorld blogger, summed it up: "

And it gets updated all the time. We don't know what new features we will get. As it stands now, after I first setup my iPad with iTunes I have never used iTunes since as I have never connected my iPad back to my Mac. I get documents, Apps, and the like, all over the wireless connection. I could care less what iTunes is not doing. As long as I have the Apps I need to do the work I want to do I could care less about your perceived limitations because they aren't mine.

G) The iPad's Battery Isn't Replacable: I know the iPad has respectable battery life, but if you need to work on a long plane ride and in a café with no available power outlets, I feel you'll need excellent battery life and a back-up cell that installs easily.

This one is even more laughable. Sorry, but spending 10 hours at the cafe ain't exactly what I call a winning strategy ever

Let's see how that 8 year old Pentium M based laptop does playing back a bunch of 720p H.264-encoded movies on that 'long flight' the author talks about as reason why his ancient laptop and it's replaceable battery is better. No wonder he thinks the iPad will need a second battery, despite being capable of 10+ hours of typical web+music+email usage and 13 hours of continuous 720p playback. You'd be lucky to get 90 minutes out H.264 of his laptop, and it probably wouldn't decode 720p at all.

I don't see why everyone keeps comparing the two. A laptop and tablets like the iPad are simply not in the same market. Yes there is some overlap in use, but there's overlap between a laptop and my cell phone these days. If you want to get pedantic about it there's overlap between my laptop and the dvd player sitting on the shelf across the room. It doesn't put them into the same market at all. Why is it that everyone is still trying to make it as if it's exclusive, you can have one, or the other?

You carry a laptop because your desktop is too big to haul around. To get portability, you compromise power & capacity to achieve size and weight.

The iPad-style tablet is a recognition that something like 80% of what you do with a computer doesn't need the capacity, power, and I/O of a desktop, so leave that stuff on your desk and take the screen, connectivity, and not much else with you instead.

A laptop computer is a compromise. A tablet is meant to complement a desktop.

Web surfing? I don't know, the tablet interface with it's ability to just click, rescale, scroll and everything without having to use a mouse is quite an upgrade personally.Gaming? You mean, you have a $200 laptop with a good graphics card in it? I'm pretty sure an iPad 2 or Tegra 2 powered tablet could blow the socks off your $200 intel integrated graphics card.Size? I think the tablet's gonna win, unless you attached a brick to the back of it. 1/4"-1/2" thick tablet wins every time. Especially when I'm in a cramped coach seat flying for 6 hours and can't open the laptop up all the way because the screen hits the seat in front of me.Battery Life? We're talking about a $200 laptop here... not a netbook. And even then try getting 10 hours of good use out of a netbook or laptop.

And who makes a New, powerful $200 laptop in the first place?

Face it, There are cases for each item. They're not meant for the same tasks. We're trying to compare apples and oranges here and I'm starting to get tired of it. Although, I will say that I got a tablet because I don't want to have to take care of another laptop. the tablet just works for what I need, I have a perfectly powerful PC in my home office I can use if I want to do anything I need it for... and if I'm just doing simple things like web browsing, facebooking, some gaming, youtubing, etc the tablet works perfectly. (and if I felt like it, I could sync my keyboard to it or use a stylus to do text input.)

It more or less mirrors my sentiments on iPad devices from the beginning. The number of people I see carrying iPad these days is about half or less than it once was when iPad was new. I still see a lot of eBook readers though, and they are smaller and lighter.

(I am seriously considering getting one of those...anyone with a recommendations? I am thinking of getting the one from Borders books...Kobo I think... I don't intend to BUY a lot of books, so it needs to be open to many formats unrestricted... I hope to create a program to download web pages for viewing on such an ebook reader... seems like ePub format is essentially a packaged HTML/CSS zip file anyway. So, Recommendations?)

But where computing and entertainment is concerned, I like keyboards and mice! I can barely tolerate my Galaxy S phone with a touchscreen only interface. (My wife got a MyTouch slide... works better for her than any touch screen saving a lot of real estate on the screen) Laptops ARE cheaper than iPads. An android tablet would leave me wanting a keyboard as well though the Galaxy tablet is calling my name... still would rather use a laptop like my M11xR2... DVD drives available through USB as needed and runs Linux great! (I know, M11xR2 is not cheaper than an iPad... but its paid for! Also netbooks run Linux sweetly anyway... I still have my Dell Mini 9... no complaints)

All in all, I still see tablets as a limited use fad that doesn't fully answer my needs for a keyboard, capacity, compatibility and versatility. Perhaps it IS good enough for many people... just not for me. (We asked the same question when it was proposed to remove or omit the floppy drive didn't we?)

I can't understand why tablets are so much more expensive than netbooks, while at the same time so devoid of most of their features: no keyboard, HD, fewer ports, cheaper CPU and GPU... Even if lacking these things is normal for a tablet, these are all parts that a netbook has, and a tablet lacks.

Their one more expensive feature is the screen, and it can't be that much more expensive to justify the x2-x3 in price.

How can they be more expensive than a netbook ? I'm holding out until sanity returns.

A 2003 ultra portable (12.1" was ultra portable when the X30 was new in 2003) does have some deficiencies that the author neglects to mention:

With a 2003 laptop you really struggle with modern video codecs such as h.264. HD, even 720p, is quite literally a non starter. The X30 has Intel integrated 830 GPU. This was fairly modest in 2003 and now it's a distinct problem unless you never watch anything except DVDs and cruddy old low resolution divx/xvid and similar. Visiting youtube or iplayer or similar will see your battery drained in short order.

Next problem: yes the Compact Flash slot was great to have integrated but outside of professional SLRs how many cameras still use CF? Most of us these days have devices which use SD, microSD and SDHC and microSDHC. And what's the speed like on that PCMCIA slot if you add a card reader? Glacial.

USB: yes the X30 has USB. But it's USB 1.1! It's so slow it will make you groan.

The display: probably the X30 had a great display in 2003 but please don't try to convince me it ever had the brightness or contrast of a modern display, because it didn't. I have a similar 12.1" Asus from 2004. After 7 years the display is distinctly tired. This is inevitable.

The touchpad: things have really moved on! Modern touch pads have fantastic multi touch features, with single, two and three finger gestures. They are actually pleasant to use, preferable even to a mouse, whereas touchpads of X30 vintage were always something you only used because you forgot to pack your USB mouse....

Imo a 7 year old laptop make for a lousy comparison to a new high end tablet. The keyboard is great, everything else looks less good. A better comparison is a 2010 or 2011 netbook. These are super cheap now. I just bought a refurbished (factory sealed, as new, guaranteed) Asus 1001P. Its screen is superb, it has a nice keyboard, a multi touch touchpad, superb sound, it can play 720p, is so efficient that stock battery lasts a full working day, it has 3xUSB 2 (no USB 1.1 here!), reads SDHC cards, runs very quietly, doesn't get hot etc etc etc. It doesn't have an optical drive, something I considered essential in 2004 when I bought my old 12.1" Asus but now it's become superfluous to the point of being redundant; I'm about as interested in carrying around DVDs and CDs as I am in keeping pockets full of cassettes or minidiscs. Best of all is that the netbook cost $20 less than that tired old X30:-)

And yet, I have not once seen someone holding up a laptop to their face and reading or browsing the world-wide web on it on my daily commute with the bus. But I do that with my iPad and have seen other people do that with other tablet computers. So, all those morons that claim that netbooks etc. are far superior to tablets are obviously wrong! I spend 1 1/2 hours a day on the bus and that's why I love my iPad. I also really enjoy it the few times a year that I have to fly.

Can't say if a tablet is "better", or just different.

But I can say when I travel on business, the last few times I've brought both my iPad and my laptop. My laptop largely sits in the laptop bag just in case I need it (though the last two trips I haven't so it's been dead weight). I use my iPad in airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants, my hotel room, in my recliner, laying down on the sofa... all sorts of places I don't use my laptop. Both because my laptop is much bulkier and awkward, and for security reasons, my company has disabled wireless. I just find the iPad to be more convenient.

I couldn't replace my work laptop with an iPad, but I do use my iPad differently... and when I'm travelling, far more often. To me, the two form factors have entirely different usage patterns. A tablet may not be for everybody, but for those of us with one, it's hard to imagine not having one.

Why is it a dumbass point to bring up the battery swap? I just replaced my battery in my 7 year old Dell laptop yesterday. Still runs fine, still plays CSS, EVE, Rome: TW, and BF2 fine(which is more than any tablet in existence can say), but batteries cease to function over time/use. Instead of completely replacing it, a 50 dollar battery makes it portable again.